So yeah. I had to give the story a little more life last two chapters (Pun intended). So anyway, this chapter isn't bad.
3rd Person POV
Megan sulked out of the infirmary, eyes red and puffy. Griffin and Blaze proceeded before her, and, when they weren't paying attention, she snuck off towards the entrance. Two guys turned from their computer screens to face each other.
"Did you see that?" One asked.
"Yeah. Did you?" The other replied.
"Of course I did! I wouldn't have brought it up if I didn't!"
The other shrugged, "You never know. It is getting close to dinner time. 8:00. You could be hallucinating about a giant roll of sushi."
"You know, a California Roll sounds good right now. Why don't they ever serve sushi in the cafeteria anyway?"
"If they did, would you be able to eat it without thinking about where it came from?"
"Of course! It's sushi."
"My God you are gross."
"So about Megan..."
"Megan?" The other asked.
"Yeah. You had to search up Cal. I had to search up his sister Megan."
"That's right. But don't you think we should leave her be? She just lost Cal, for Pete's sake."
"Who's Pete?"
"Ugh. Send two of the people who came with her to go retrieve her after a little while. Perhaps you should send the guy we're..."
The first one cut him off, "No. We should finish up that session. I'm thinking the guys that call themselves... Who were they again? One was Sky... Oh, Jared was the other one. They seem good enough."
"Adam, you know we should probably send only one to avoid scaring her."
"What are you two bickering about?" Felix asked as he swiveled to face the other two.
"We're trying to figure out who to send after Megan, who just left," Adam told him, pointing towards the stone-cut hallway leading out.
"I'd send two people out. You know, one to keep track of the base, one to get her," Felix suggested.
"Ha! Beat that, Jason!"
"Yeah, yeah. Just send those two out."
"You can't tell me what to do!" Adam yelled.
"So what are you going to do, then?"
"Follow my original plan."
"I just suggested your original plan," Jason pointed out.
"Well, you know what? I'm going to change it up! I'm not going to send out Sky and Jared, I'm going to send out Jared and Sky."
"Wow. Such a rebel." Jason sarcastically replied, turning back to the computer monitors.
Adam stuck his tongue out and worked on sending out the two people.
After a little while of typing, Adam sighed and got up, running towards the guy's dorm room. Sliding open the crudely painted blue door, he went over to the bunk where Deadlox and TrueMU were talking, Deadlox lying down on his bunk, TrueMU sitting on his.
"Yo, Jared!" Adam yelled, trying to catch his breath.
"Huh?"
"Two questions... Do you know where Sky is and... Would you help us... get Megan back?" He puffed.
"Sky is in the larger fighting-wrestling room thing and sure," TrueMU said, going over to Adam.
"Go ahead and get Sky and head out of the base. Megan should be close, knowing her. One of you needs to keep track of the entrance while the other finds her. Clear?" Adam asked.
"Yep!" TrueMU said, running off towards the shooting range.
-Megan's POV-
I picked up a smooth stone and tossed it into the small stream. It splashed and stayed at the bottom of the water.
A glint near the bottom of the water caught my eye. I almost shrugged it off as a simple piece of mica, but it shone bluer than the water.
Reaching into the ice cold brook, I shuffled around some rocks and found a ring. It had a dark blue sapphire in the middle and from the bottom of the gem to the right side, small diamonds surrounding it. I grasped at my memories and tried to put the ring into place, as it looked familiar.
It was my grandmother's ring. She lived in the mountains up near Telluride. My grandfather and her both loved hiking. He fell into despair when she died of cardiac arrest a few years ago. Perhaps he cast the ring off into the river to try and bury his emotions.
I picked off the moss coating the golden band. It had turned a tint of green from its bath.
"Whatcha doin'?" Someone asked from behind me.
"Waaaahhh!" I wailed, as I fell into the stream.
Sky offered me his hand and I grabbed it, pulling him in with me.
I got up and brushed off my jean shorts to no avail. My jacket had gotten wet, too, "What was that for?!"
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!" Sky responded, falling back into the stream as he got up.
"Well. I guess we had better get cleaned up..." I said, walking away and back towards the entrance.
Sky got up and followed be, "Besides, dinner is in just a few minutes. I'm not gonna miss that."
I noticed my stomach grumble as I neared TrueMU. It had been a while since I had eaten.
~2 Hours Later~
I collapsed in my bunk; I never knew nachos could be so filling. Only two days had passed since I met the group, although it felt like longer.
I had even gotten my brother back yesterday. He was gone again, though.
I had been told a little bit ago that they were going to hold a funeral thing tomorrow morning. They wouldn't be dressing him up or anything; they'd just be sending him off into an underground lake in a raft.
I started to drift off into sleep, the ring in my gray jacket's pocket.
~In Ze Morning~
We had set off towards a rock face, people behind me carrying Cal. As we approached the natural wall, people in front of us had started to try and dislodge a few rocks. They had tried for a little while when a girl came running up to them with a rusty crowbar, which looked oddly familiar.
She lodged the crowbar under a rock and sent the rock backwards and her curly hair into her face. Rocks son started tumbling away, revealing a gaping tunnel.
He headed on in and soon, a beautiful lake stretched out in front of us. The people in the back of the group stepped up towards the shore, setting the raft gently on the water.
"Megan, would you send him off?" Someone asked me.
I knelt at the lake's shore and grasped the side of the raft. Gathering up my emotions, I lightly sent him off. He slowly drifted towards the center of the water, a beam of light illuminating the water below. Stalagmites and stalactites glinted with the light and made the gray cave look like a hidden paradise. At least, I wished it was that. Instead, it was some sort of burial ground, not much better than a morgue.
We walked back and the day went on normally: uneventful. Lunch was the same as yesterday's dinner, and dinner didn't happen until 8 for some reason. Since I had a few hours to kill, I asked one of the computer guys if it'd be okay for me to go out to the lake.
"Fine by me, but take a few people with you. Make sure you have someone who's more familiar with the facility with you," One of them told me.
I went back to the dorm room and found Wintra, who hadn't gone with me to the funeral.
"You want to go see Cal a last time?" I asked, nudging her.
"Sure."
We left the dormitory and saw Griffin teasing Blaze about something.
"Oh, come on! Just give it to me!" Blaze complained as Griffin held something behind his back.
"Guess which hand first!" Griffin said.
Blaze sighed, "Both."
"Not fair! You can't just... Hey!" Griffin yelled as Blaze snatched the item from behind him.
"Finally!" Blaze exasperated, putting the beanie she had gotten on her head.
We went on our way and I grabbed Allison and told her what we were going to do. The three of us walked up the stone hallway and out of the base. The tunnel dotted the rock wall, as it hadn't been closed off.
We paced down the slightly illuminated corridor of the tunnel and emerged into the cavern. The lake sat there, undisturbed, and Cal was floating out in the middle of it. I wanted to believe it wasn't him out there, but I couldn't. The rocks at the bottom of the lake shone with a brilliance I hadn't seen the last time I was here. It looked surreal.
"Wow..." Wintra sighed.
"I don't remember it looking like this... Should I?" Allison said to herself.
We all seemed to be enthralled with the scene and not what happened here this morning. Wintra bent down and, after a few seconds, she jumped back and ran off, out towards the base.
"Wait!" I called out but she was already gone.
What could she have seen? Could it be a magical pineapple? Maybe, but find out in the next installment of JWtU! Just kidding. It isn't a pineapple.
(Life story rant ahead. You are warned.)
Anyway, as of now, my mood hasn't been the best of all things. In band, we've never done chair auditions before this year, but my piece of crap director expected us to know everything. So, as I actually play flute, we were playing individual parts one at a time. I go to play mine, and he asks what part I am. I'm part one.
"Didn't you know you needed to switch parts?"
So now, one rehearsal before the concert, we had to, along with other people in the band, change our parts in CUT TIME BELLE OF CHICAGO. My director is a real a**.
Yup. Not the best idea on anyone's part to make me angry. Because if you do...
SPANISH INQUISITION!
Sorry, I was watching Monty Python last night...